Conor Murray remains Munster's biggest concern ahead of next Sunday's Guinness Pro12 final and seasonal climax in the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.
The province are awaiting the results of a scan into his medial cruciate ligament injury, the result of a late tackle by Dan Lydiate which Munster will want the match citing commissioner to investigate.
Murray informed head coach Anthony Foley on Saturday night that the injury did not feel as bad as a similar knee injury he had sustained before and so Foley remained "hopeful". But the scrum-half remains a major doubt for the final after being forced from the field in the 17th minute of Munster's thrilling 21-18 semi-final win over the Ospreys at Thomond Park on Saturday.
The win, only Munster’s second in their last ten semi-finals to earn them a first final since beating Leinster in the Limerick decider in 2011, came at a cost: Peter O’Mahony (hip flexor) and Simon Zebo (head injury assessment) were also forced off in that dramatic second half.
Coming after George Clancy was moved to turn an Ulster scrum into a pivotal Glasgow penalty in the Scots' win on Friday night, the two semi-final endgames underlined the importance of the crowd, and maintained the 100 per cent record of home teams in 12 semi-finals to date. Nonetheless, from Munster's perspective this has turned an away final into a neutral venue in which they ought to have the majority of the support.
Atmosphere
“Look, it’s obviously a new concept this year and it will be interesting to see the atmosphere up there,” said Foley.
“I actually spent a week last year on holidays in Northern Ireland, I spent three days around Belfast, did the ‘black taxi’ ride, went to the Titanic museum and all that. It’s a beautiful city. I’d be encouraging as many Munster supporters to . . . sample Belfast.”
“With a neutral venue, people will be looking to go there and cheer on the side they’re most affiliated with, so we’d like to think that being Irish and playing in an Irish stadium that we’ll get a fair chunk of the support.”
Farewell
The final will also now be notable for it being Paul O’Connell’s final game for Munster. The Irish captain has still to inform Munster as to whether he will retire or, more probably perhaps, join Toulon after the World Cup, but this semi-final was clearly a farewell to Thomond Park.
“He’s been a colossus,” said Foley, whose conversations with O’Connell have been purely game-orientated. “Any team he was involved with, you know, it’s just the manner in which he goes about it, the standards he sets.
“He’s the most challenging person that you’ll come across in your whole life, he’s been a massive influence on everyone who has played with him, coaches that have coached around him and have tried to work with him at times.
“So, it’s good. He’s been brilliant for us. Everything’s got to come to an end some time, but we’ll know more when Paul lets us all know more.”
As for sealing O’Connell’s last game by lifting a trophy, Foley said with a knowing smile: “Yeah, I do understand that sport has no conscience, it doesn’t care who or what.
“It’s about what we put into the game, it’s how we prepare this week and we have to leave the emotion out of it and make sure we’re technically and tactically right and try and get in a performance that can upset Glasgow.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s epic semi-final, Foley was pleased with “our work-rate, our ability to play the game, our endeavour to go after the game” as well as their defence.
